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Banks in the United Kingdom are making efforts to reassure about 3 million clients after last week’s news that Sony customers all over the world may have been victims of data theft.

More than 100 million people in the world have their personal data at risk, after hackers broke into their accounts on PlayStation Network, Sony Online Entertainment and Qriocity film.

Currently confusion reigns over what action the 3 million affected UK customers should take. One client said that his bank, Lloyds, advised him to cancel his credit card, but an official reaction by the bank followed shortly saying that such an advice should have not been given and that it does not plan to cancel cards until Sony provides more information on the case.

Another bank, Barclays, said it was not voluntarily replacing or cancelling clients’ cards, but that it will check individual accounts on request and flag them if at risk of fraud.

An official of the UK Payments Administration said that “once Sony has worked out what is lost, it will advise us and we will advise the banks. The banks can then decide whether to reissue cards or flag accounts in potential danger.”

Sony’s PlayStation Network may be offline longer than the company had expected, a Sony executive said.

"When we held the press conference in All Japan news last week, based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week," he said. "We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system."

Identity theft is a highly dangerous consequence of data breaches, as hackers use or sell personal information that can be used to set up lines of credit in a victim’s name. [Financial Times, CNET]